Marshmallow-Chocoholic

Agreed. I know a lot of people were “ happy on the development” in that scene in earlier episodes between Gu Reum and Zi O , but it was a serious jump in character development and an even weirder development in logic for that later story plot. Honestly, I thought when they announced this drama a couple of months back, it was actually going to be a rare gem of making the genre of action work like Uncanny Counter or with the romance factor, Healer. Such a shame the way that they’ve destroyed a lot of potentially good characters from a story writing perspective in a matter of episodes.

Agreed. The storyline should have been brilliant, but there was just little interest or actual emotional attachment to make viewers “ feel” motivated.

Hundred percent agree; the only reasons that I’m watching it for is just to see if it clears up the bumpy plot inconsistencies from S1, if they will actually develop Jo Jo into a character and to see what happens with Brian Chon. Sadly, I think they’ll just continue onwards with her lacklustre pairing between the two male leads ( nothing wrong with it entirely, just we don’t really get a enough time as a consequence to see actual character development).

Thank you for your reply. I’m sorry to hear about what you’ve been through personally upon this by being judged upon your physical appearance and I hope that you aren’t letting it get to you too much, as everybody should feel comfortable in their own body :(. As someone who has also been subjected to bullying based upon physical appearance for slightly different reasons and has also seen several close friends being harshly subjected to beauty standards at the cost of their own mental and physical health, I do agree with remaining more “ open” to the old saying “ don’t judge a book by its cover”. I do see where your coming from about going down the slippery slope argument of society because it becomes an easy thing to blame, rather than the individuals . Still, I have to agree to disagree a little on the issue of society personally, but I honestly do see your point. I do agree that it would be nice if the drama does focus upon the female lead’s development first over dating, and hopefully we will see this! :)

Kim So-Hyun plays the main female lead and has been in a lot of productions over the years such as Who Are You: School 2015 , Moon Embracing The Sun and recently starring in River Where The Moon Rises. The male main lead is played by Song Kang who has only really popped up in the past few years as an actor, but has been rising to prominence in several roles including When The Devil Calls Your Name and Sweet Home ( this year he’s also starring in Navillera; a drama based on the webtoon about an old man who decides to pursue ballet and befriends a younger student who is played by Song Kang). The second ML is Jung Ga Ram who pops up every so often in minor roles and has even appeared in dramas such as When The Camelia Blooms and The Heirs. Hope that helps ! :)

Well-said; it isn’t really “ dire” and certainly has an interesting concept and good actors, it just lacks a lot of intrinsic depth and characterisation.

This is actually quite an interesting view upon the female heroine’s own ugliness and beliefs in herself being an “ ugly mushroom” being egocentric. I believe that I should perhaps reiterate my point a little from my original statement about Mahiru; I’m not claiming she is “ ugly” , but the ideology of the “ ugly to pretty” is an undeniably popular trope in shows like this, and gloss it up as you will, this show is no exception.

Nevertheless, I do believe that this is evident from the way the show tries to enforce Mahiru’s original disbelief upon the physical appearance between herself and and a “ pretty” influencer being “ too great” does help to enforce your original statement about self-perception. However, I do have to agree to disagree with a little bit about the the entirety of her beauty being “ self-inflicted”; Mahiru may have judged herself to be “ ugly”, but this also as a consequence of external social critiques and pressures upon beauty in Japanese society- she immediately holds herself up against beauty from a young age via magazines ( the “ pretty models”) just as later as a teen she is shown to be looking on social media at influencers as the epitome of “ chic and pretty”.

In addition to this idea of Mahiru’s label, the other children around her must have held something accountable from their own view of beauty in order to still hold onto this note towards Mahiru as the “ ugly mushroom”-note how in an early flashback, the boys immediately call her out because she’s “wearing glasses”( of course a normal thing, but something which doesn’t traditionally account to “ perfection” by having bad eyesight) and made her “ different” from universal norms of beauty ( even from a young age).

I’ll agree with you to some extent about the makeover scene as it does remain prominent that Mahiru isn’t suddenly some “ goddess” amongst the rest of her school , however, the transition between the stylist’s choices for Mahiru in the beginning of the show ( as I mentioned before with the wig in my original comment) and the clearly “ perfect” hair later on, does try to make it evident that Mahiru is trying to concede to a more universal conception of beauty.

Again, I do see your point about her hypocrisy about Mahiru when she agreed to dating the male student who asked her out as her first perception is that she’ll “ probably never have the chance again” to be asked out by someone due to her lack of self-confidence. On the other hand, this is also what irks me a little bit about Mahiru as a character; her hypocrisy. It’s fairly brilliant she stood up for herself and didn’t take her beating against those who humiliated her, yet for someone who was bullied and who had experienced probably similar situations herself, it doesn’t make her a particularly empathic character who progresses in this first episode either. In fact, I guess this is why Kumada Tenyu was scornful of her actions because she was using her looks as a way of hurting others and stooping to their level, rather than moving on.

Maybe my other note on the female lead is that in addition to intrinsically being hypocritical ( of course not always necessarily a terrible flaw, but odd considering her character background ) , there are going to be evident cliches surrounding her character being oblivious towards the obvious feelings of her childhood friend. I know that if you’re in that scenario, it’s easy not to notice, however, let’s be honest in saying that this is still a romance drama and evidently going to be another trope which is drawn in.

My comparisons to True Beauty is more a passing comment- it’s important to remember that a lot of Asian countries like to “ take” ideas from one another after recent successes on genres or styles in their country from these foreign dramas, and True Beauty is probably no exception with the South-Korean subculture in Japan. Yes, this is based upon an eponymous manga and yes, this idea of “ geek to beauty” has been around a lot longer than True Beauty in mangas and dramas, but it is evident that this was probably encouraged by this “ trend” to be commercialised into a drama. I get where you’re coming from about the show going in a different direction to True Beauty upon self-discovery, but let’s not deny that this is still a romance drama/ Josei manga where the FL will probably evidently end up in a similar romance triangle ( considering the way the show has panned out so far between Kumada and her childhood friend ). I do honestly really like some of your points though! :)

3B no Koibito has so far been an odd show in terms of following many generic romantic cliches, pairings and tropes, yet surprisingly having a fairly well-written female-lead who doesn’t comply to typical rom-com heroines. The pairing is certainly evident to a matter of opinion, however, it would almost be just as satisfying if Haru doesn’t choose any of them . Regardless of the ending, 3B no Koibito has been a cheesy but fun show :).

So far from the first episode Mairunovich seems to play upon a lot of overused and outdated tropes. Although the first episode of True Beauty wasn’t entirely everyone’s cup of tea ( as a similar byproduct of the “ makeover revolution” trope) and certainly not a flawless show, it still tackled some things a lot better in the first episode than Mairunovich . Whilst the show attempts to point out that the heroine Kinoshita Mairu is “ ugly” by having actress Sakurai Hinako in a bad wig, glasses and frumpy skirt, the “ ugly to pretty” trope is just too ridiculous considering both Hinako and her character Mairu are far from “ Plain Janes” even with the apparent “ ugly guise”. Honestly, the “ Ugly to Pretty” trope can be an interesting topic and a social critique about the reality of harsh beauty standards, but, even in a light fluffy romantic comedy, Mairu has so far come off as quite a shallow and lacklustre heroine . Kumada is the pretty much the stereotypical “ cool” love interest, but I will the show some credit in the fact that he isn’t stereotyped as being “ effeminate” because he’s skilled in makeup , just as Kinoshita Fuwari isn’t stereotyped upon her chosen gender. The first episode was pretty generic upon tropes and messy, but hopefully this will improve in later episodes.

I know where both of you are coming from. Normally this type of show should have unlimited potential towards creativity and good characterisation, but every episode is repetitive with the same setup and the characters have hardly had any time to grow. Probably will stick around just to see how they plan on panning it out, but certainly not as good as it should have been...

Totally agree with you - I understand that the show would want to begin with showing a transition from Zio being slightly “ benign” to more “ mature”, however, at the minute it just seems like we’re going round in circles with any character progression. Similarly, I get Gu Reum’s “ interest” in Zio being a connection to her past, but, she constantly seems to make the same mistakes every episode around him, either getting hurt herself or hurting someone ( indirectly) else in the process. This sort of shows ( like you said) either the director should have cast younger to play the characters, or it’s just poor story-writing . Let’s just hope that we actually get to see some character progression, otherwise this is going to be a long and dragged-out show.

I get you - the storyline and potential chemistry between the leads is interesting, however, I think it’s important that they give us some time to flesh-out our antagonist Go Geon. Sometimes dramas just don’t focus enough upon the villains , often making them a but one-dimensional. ( Just hope this isn’t the case with this story.)

Not sure what to think yet about this one yet from the first few episodes. It was evident from the get-go that the storyline would have a lot of “ artistic attributes”. (For those who don’t know, “ The Tale of Princess Pyeoyang and The Fool On Dal” is well-known in Korean legend- though they were actual historical figures, the major focus was upon the commoner and foolish On Dal marrying a Princess.) Nevertheless, there does seem to be some interesting ( though predictable) setups in the storyline as well as themes which should be tackled as well ( gender and social inequality as well as political corruption). Kim So Hyun and Ji Soo are undeniably fairly good actors, but it was a strange move by director Sang Ho to cast So Hyun as the mother as well ( I get they want to show “ family resemblance”, but it is a little confusing) in the first episode. Hopefully some of the acting and storyline will get better in later episodes, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I’m sort of surprised by the good potential of the first episode. It’s early days to claim anything else, but the leads so far are quite likeable without being overly irritating, the acting is fairly good and the plot set-up isn’t “ new”, but it is certainly a refreshing dynamic to have the male lead harbouring a crush. Not bad.

I know where you're coming from with trying to work if a drama is actually good or not from its ratings on here. Don't get me wrong. If a show has about five top ratings saying this is a '' terrible drama'' then the likelihood will be that isn't going to be a masterpiece when you start watching it . On the other hand, I think there's also the opposite problem on here that some drama watchers overestimate or glorify shows because of certain actors/ actresses, a little too much when the show as a whole was average upon acting or storyline. I don't know about you, but I have found that sometimes you've got to watch something yourself before you start looking at reviews. There are times where I have dropped shows like a hot stone and are seriously surprised when other reviewers rant or rave about it, and others times when I can honestly love a show and are surprised by the amount of negative comments. I guess it is really down to opinions and tastes at the end of the day.

Thank you, for reading my review :)!

I’m already liking this drama a lot from what I’ve seen. It does follow some of the stereotypical cliches but both lead characters actually seem to have an element of being “ fleshed out” and the other leads aren’t just cardboard cutouts either. So long as the quality of the story and characterisation is maintained in later episodes , hopefully this will be a good drama to watch.

I know this is an old comment post, but definitely agree with the top comments - everyone has a favourite, but the Japanese is more authentic and underrated for several reasons ( not least the cast) .

I totally agree with you. I have never been a fan of the Korean version for several reasons and whilst everyone seems to gawp over LMH, for me personally, the Japanese cast ( especially Jun Matsumoto ) are better looking for me ;)

Same here - lots of people seem to prefer the Korean, but the Japanese has always found a way in my heart for the story, characters and ideas than other versions ;)